Everon by Army Reforger has an interesting history

Although this Arma ReforgerReleased last spring in Early Access on Steam and Xbox, and still somewhat of a problematic project, the game is undeniable. the immense charm of the setting in the form of Everon Island. Just about the remake of Everon, which first appeared in Operation Flashpoint/Army: Assault on the Cold War since 2001, while recently focused Ivan Bay, creative director of Bohemia Interactive, in his lecture in Zlín at UTB at Game Design. And since the server visiongame.cz recently published a recording of this lecture, we have at our disposal a number of answers to numerous questions that may arise in connection with the island.

Probably all of us who have ever played Operation Flashpoint have probably dwelled on the fact that Czech is spoken on Everon. And at the same time, it is an island somewhere in the Atlantic, which is largely based on the topography of the Croatian island of Krk, and on which you can find quite French place names. However, when developing Army Reforger, the developers at Bohemia Interactive found the answer. Protestant exiles from Bohemia moved to the sparsely populated island, formerly owned by French pirates, after the victory of the Habsburgs at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. and re-catholicization began.

Ivan Bukhta admits that the explanation might be a bit creaky from a historical standpoint, but that’s exactly what the creators came up with. “Perhaps someday someone will discover some legend or chronicle that will explain everything, if you think about it. However, the Czechs came here after the White Mountain and gradually took over the island culturally. However, there is still a French minority there, and French place names have some meaning there.”

So Bukhta explained the history of the island, which is part of the Malden Islands archipelago. In addition to Everon, this includes the islands of Malden and Kolguev, which are also part of Operation Flashpoint, and Nogova. We could come in here to change the Resistance data disc. In connection with the evacuation of civilians from Everon, a Czech-language radio is broadcasting from Nogov, which you can listen to while playing Army Reforger..

However, the history of Everon has more in common with our homeland. Apparently, the poet Jan Neruda also visited the island., whose verses are inspired by the verses of Everon’s national anthem. And The Château de Montfort, perched on the hills above the city of Saint-Pierre, is inspired by the castle of Helfenburk. in northern Bohemia. From him, the authors of Operation Flashpoint took only the iconic tower and gate, and Helfenburk was handed over to Army Reforger almost ready-made. The developers of the new addition to the Arma series have even chosen such a latitude as part of Everon’s Atlantic setting that the Czech-inspired landscape biome is more or less located on an island.

However, Ivan Bukhta notes that the history of Everon is not the subject of the lecture. Therefore, this mainly concerns various equally interesting topics related to the development of the gaming environment itself. Determining the past and history helped a lot during developmentbut the lecture also discusses photographic references, waterways, signage, infrastructure, the location of agricultural cooperatives, and of course, use of new technologies in the form of the Enfusion game engine. All this with the aim of making Everon a truly believable, authentic, functional and exotic location for foreign players, in which Operation Flashpoint veterans and those who remember the 80s in Czechoslovakia will easily recognize familiar elements and places.

Part of all this is also an indication of how and especially why the developers have turned Saint Philippe, which in Operation Flashpoint consists of only a few houses, a church and barracks, into the sprawling capital of Everon.. Further examples of modifying or expanding various parts of the original environment can be found at the very end of the lecture, which, unfortunately, spoils the some sound problems.

During the lecture, successful concepts, the author of which he is, are also shown. Joseph Suri. If you visited the Game World – Art in Czech Video Games exhibition in Olomouc last summer, you will probably recognize some of them. In every case concepts show not only what we usually encounter when playing Army Reforger, but also some unrealized or unused elements. Vehicles aside, including the iconic civilian bus, it’s mostly Everon’s industrial north, with tower blocks and a power plant dominated by cooling towers.

We can’t stop looking at these pictures. believing that Arma Reforger deserves a decent artbook. Let’s hope Bohemia Interactive releases them at least as desktop wallpapers in the future. In any case, this is just one of the many reasons why it is worth watching the entire lecture, which lasts about an hour and a quarter. So if you play Arma Reforger or any other part of the Arma series and are interested in the backstory of development, we definitely recommend it.

Ivan Bukhta also confirmed during the lecture not only that Arma Reforger will remain in Early Access for a while, but also that also looking forward to the PlayStation version. But that will most likely only happen with the release of the full game, as Sony doesn’t offer any software for unfinished games like early access on Steam or game previews on Xbox. Full development should also formally begin once Army Reforger is completed, Bucht said. Army 4.